Community Health Center Facts

America’s Health Centers serve as the health care home for over 24 million people in over 6,000 communities, and are recognized as an invaluable part of the nation’s health delivery system.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has ranked health centers as one of the 10 most effective government programs – a designation earned by only six percent of all federal programs (visit www.expectmore.gov for more information).

The American Academy of Family Physicians’ Robert Graham Center recently found that the total cost of care for health center patients is 41% lower annually than the total cost of care for patients of other providers.

Fewer newborn babies die in communities that have a health center. Health centers have reduced infant mortality rates by up to 40 percent.

Women who receive care at health centers are more up to date with Pap tests, mammograms and clinical breast exams than other low-income and uninsured women.

Health centers save the U.S. health care system more than $17 billion a year by providing affordable, preventive health care to low-income, uninsured people who may rely on hospital emergency rooms as a source of care. $18 billion is wasted annually on avoidable visits to emergency rooms that could have been redirected to a health center.

There are now 56 million Americans who lack access to a primary care physician, many of whom have health insurance coverage. Under a new plan called ACCESS for All America, health centers can serve 30 million patients by the year 2015 if funding for health centers is increased by 15 percent annually over the next 8 years.

CHC Quality of Care

Why Community Health Centers?

Fact: America’s Community Health Centers serve as the health care home for over 17 million people in over 6,000 communities, and are recognized as an invaluable part of the nation’s health care delivery system.